He chuckled. “What else are you frustrated about?”
“Just that. I guess I don’t like hearing people tell me that I’m wrong, or that my decisions are a mistake.”
“No one would like hearing that. You can tell their well-meaning asses to screw off.”
I couldn’t prevent a half-smile. “It might be kind of nice for us to be a team. Except when it comes to telling my parents about us… that’s going to be all on you.”
His lips stretched in a grin. “Your parents love me. We’ll tell them how unexpected it was, I’ll kiss your cheek, and they’ll be thrilled.”
“For once, I think I’m glad you’re right,” I admitted.
He let out a booming laugh. “Get used to it, Spaghetti. I’m charming when I’m right.”
I snorted, but couldn’t deny that.
The man was always charming.
I picked my hand mixer up and started on my batter again. Since Eli was awake, I kind of regretted not going with the stand mixer from the beginning. But, I wasn’t going to the effort of switching halfway through.
“What are we going to do about our day-to-day life?” I wondered. “I work from home, but I only need a kitchen.”
“My apartment at Mate Mountain has a kitchen, but there are larger living areas for mated pairs there. We could claim one of them, and set it up as a home base. Then we could go back and forth from here to there as often as we want. I work forty or fifty hours a week managing the prison guard schedule and tackling whatever else Jasper throws at me, so I’ll need to be at the Mountain a good portion of the time.”
I nodded. “What’s it like there?”
“It’s hard to explain, and depends completely on what part of the mountain you live in. A lot of the space is bland, without much furniture. Randa has been trying to make everything more comfortable, but it’s a big place, so it’ll take a long time to get it there.”
Well, I liked the idea of helping my sister spruce it up. I wasn’t much for interior decorating, but I was a pro at assembling furniture that came in boxes, and hanging art on walls. I’d always ended up with those jobs while Randa did the artsy decorating thing.
“Well, I’m sure I can work there just as easily as I can work here, assuming you’re okay with shuttling groceries,” I said.
“It’s not a problem to add whatever you need to the mountain’s shopping order,” he agreed.
“Then that should work. I’ll like being close to Randa. Hopefully. Assuming I don’t hate Mate Mountain.”
“You won’t hate it. It’s peaceful there. Maybe too peaceful sometimes, but there’s a gigantic kitchen.”
I leaned toward him. “How gigantic?”
He grinned. “Gigantic enough to feed an assload of dragon shifters three to five meals a day. We have a handful of guys assigned just to cooking, but they hate planning the menu and shit like that. They just rotate the same few recipes every week. If you ever wanted to take charge, they’d be thrilled to follow your lead.”
I leaned even closer. “You realize you’re describing my dream job, right?”
“I’m aware.”
“We’ll go tomorrow,” I said.
Eli’s grin widened. “Deal.”
Would I hand over my recipe creation job for Brynn’s coffee shop if I could get paid to consistently make and change the menu in Mate Mountain? And have a handful of shifters following my orders in the kitchen?
In a heartbeat.
It would be like having my own restaurant, but all the customers would be hungry dragon shifters who would devour whatever the hell I put in front of them.
I liked the freedom of my job, but I was really tired of trying to make up cupcake recipes. There was only so much I could do with cake.
And I missed making real food.